CVE-2023-53625
Medium · 5.5CVSS
5.5
EPSS
0.2%
Published
Oct 7, 2025
CISA due date
—
Cloudanix analysis
A flaw in Linux graphics driver cleanup can crash the whole system when certain virtual devices are removed.
- Exploitation
- Local Privilege
- Attacker needs
- Low Privilege
- Complexity
- Low
- Impact
- Denial Of Service
- Component
- OS kernel
- Class
- Memory Corruption
- Remediation
- Upgrade
- Effort
- Medium
- Patch risk
- Low
What it actually does
NULL pointer dereference during debugfs removal for vGPU when the drm minor's debugfs root has already been destroyed, triggering kernel oops in __lock_acquire and simple_recursive_removal.
Why it matters to the business
Local denial of service via kernel crash on systems using Intel GVT-g virtualization when unloading drivers or removing mediated devices; high prevalence in Linux environments increases operational risk for affected kernels.
How an attack unfolds
An attacker with local access triggers vGPU removal (via mdev unregistration or driver unload) on a system where debugfs root is gone, causing the unchecked removal path to dereference a null pointer and panic the kernel.
How to fix it
Update to a kernel containing the fix for drm/i915/gvt vgpu debugfs cleanup; for Decidim deployments referenced in fixed versions apply 0.27.6 or later.
How to confirm the fix worked
Confirm presence of the debugfs availability check in intel_gvt_debugfs_remove_vgpu; test vGPU removal after drm minor teardown without triggering NULL dereference.
Typical attack path
- Obtain local user access on affected Linux host
- Trigger mediated device removal or driver unload sequence
- Invoke intel_gvt_destroy_vgpu path without valid debugfs root
- Kernel executes simple_recursive_removal on null dentry leading to oops
How to detect it
Review kernel logs for BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference during intel_gvt_destroy_vgpu or mdev_device_remove; correlate with device release traces on systems running affected i915 drivers.
What your security team should do
- Prioritize kernel updates on systems using i915 GVT-g
- Restrict local access for unprivileged users until patched
- Monitor for kernel oops events during device removal
The record
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915/gvt: fix vgpu debugfs clean in remove Check carefully on root debugfs available when destroying vgpu, e.g in remove case drm minor's debugfs root might already be destroyed, which led to kernel oops like below. Console: switching to colour dummy device 80x25 i915 0000:00:02.0: MDEV: Unregistering intel_vgpu_mdev b1338b2d-a709-4c23-b766-cc436c36cdf0: Removing from iommu group 14 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000150 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP CPU: 3 PID: 1046 Comm: driverctl Not tainted 6.1.0-rc2+ #6 Hardware name: HP HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT/829D, BIOS P02 Ver. 02.44 09/13/2022 RIP: 0010:__lock_acquire+0x5e2/0x1f90 Code: 87 ad 09 00 00 39 05 e1 1e cc 02 0f 82 f1 09 00 00 ba 01 00 00 00 48 83 c4 48 89 d0 5b 5d 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f c3 45 31 ff <48> 81 3f 60 9e c2 b6 45 0f 45 f8 83 fe 01 0f 87 55 fa ff ff 89 f0 RSP: 0018:ffff9f770274f948 EFLAGS: 00010046 RAX: 0000000000000003 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000150 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: ffff8895d1173300 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 0000000000000150 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 00007fc9b2ba0740(0000) GS:ffff889cdfcc0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000150 CR3: 000000010fd93005 CR4: 00000000003706e0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> lock_acquire+0xbf/0x2b0 ? simple_recursive_removal+0xa5/0x2b0 ? lock_release+0x13d/0x2d0 down_write+0x2a/0xd0 ? simple_recursive_removal+0xa5/0x2b0 simple_recursive_removal+0xa5/0x2b0 ? start_creating.part.0+0x110/0x110 ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x29/0x40 debugfs_remove+0x40/0x60 intel_gvt_debugfs_remove_vgpu+0x15/0x30 [kvmgt] intel_gvt_destroy_vgpu+0x60/0x100 [kvmgt] intel_vgpu_release_dev+0xe/0x20 [kvmgt] device_release+0x30/0x80 kobject_put+0x79/0x1b0 device_release_driver_internal+0x1b8/0x230 bus_remove_device+0xec/0x160 device_del+0x189/0x400 ? up_write+0x9c/0x1b0 ? mdev_device_remove_common+0x60/0x60 [mdev] mdev_device_remove_common+0x22/0x60 [mdev] mdev_device_remove_cb+0x17/0x20 [mdev] device_for_each_child+0x56/0x80 mdev_unregister_parent+0x5a/0x81 [mdev] intel_gvt_clean_device+0x2d/0xe0 [kvmgt] intel_gvt_driver_remove+0x2e/0xb0 [i915] i915_driver_remove+0xac/0x100 [i915] i915_pci_remove+0x1a/0x30 [i915] pci_device_remove+0x31/0xa0 device_release_driver_internal+0x1b8/0x230 unbind_store+0xd8/0x100 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x156/0x210 vfs_write+0x236/0x4a0 ksys_write+0x61/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x55/0x80 ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80 ? lock_release+0x13d/0x2d0 ? up_read+0x17/0x20 ? lock_is_held_type+0xe3/0x140 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 ? lockdep_hardirqs_on+0x7d/0x100 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 RIP: 0033:0x7fc9b2c9e0c4 Code: 15 71 7d 0d 00 f7 d8 64 89 02 48 c7 c0 ff ff ff ff eb b7 0f 1f 00 f3 0f 1e fa 80 3d 3d 05 0e 00 00 74 13 b8 01 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 54 c3 0f 1f 00 48 83 ec 28 48 89 54 24 18 48 RSP: 002b:00007ffec29c81c8 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000000000000000d RCX: 00007fc9b2c9e0c4 RDX: 000000000000000d RSI: 0000559f8b5f48a0 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: 0000559f8b5f48a0 R08: 0000559f8b5f3540 R09: 00007fc9b2d76d30 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 000000000000000d R13: 00007fc9b2d77780 R14: 000000000000000d R15: 00007fc9b2d72a00 </TASK> Modules linked in: sunrpc intel_rapl_msr intel_rapl_common intel_pmc_core_pltdrv intel_pmc_core intel_tcc_cooling x86_pkg_temp_thermal intel_powerclamp coretemp kvm_intel ee1004 igbvf rapl vfat fat intel_cstate intel_uncore pktcdvd i2c_i801 pcspkr wmi_bmof i2c_smbus acpi_pad vfio_pci vfio_pci_core vfio_virqfd zram fuse dm ---truncated---
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Kernel | 4.16.0 | 5.10.163 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1.150500.6.61.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1.150500.6.61.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP5 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP5 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP5_Update_32 | 0 | 1-150500.11.3.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1.150500.6.61.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1.150500.6.61.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1.150500.6.61.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1 |
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